A/N: Yeah ... I'm not even going to try justifying posting so many multi-chaptered stories when I still have others to finish ... But the only thing I can ask of my dear readers is to trust me.
Also, warnings: there will be eventual shonen-ai with implied yaoi later on. If anybody has a problem with that sort of thing, I apologize and request that you read no further.
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Part IV: Jus Sanguinius
--
It had been late afternoon when Aster had brought Emil to his dormitory, and as Emil had only just awakened, the researcher thought better of performing any sort of examination or study. Though Director Schneider had assigned Aster to watch over Emil, the jury was still undecided as to make a possible Sylvaranti a test subject.
Instead, Aster only asked Emil a few questions about himself, cooked a small dinner (beef stew with rice) and promptly went to bed. He was slumbering quite peacefully, like a child.
Sitting on the other bed by the window, in the pool of silvery moonlight, Emil leaned against the wall, unable to sleep. He stared at his living mirror across the room, brow knit with a frown, almost a cringe. A voice echoed deep within his mind.
What's the matter? Can't sleep?
Emil heaved a long-suffering sigh, pulling his knees closer to his body, arms wrapped around his legs.
" ... No." He said softly, it was barely audible. "Not like we need to sleep, anyway."
Why did you stop me back there? The inner voice demanded scathingly. You better than anyone know what that filthy half-elf is trying to do!
He rested his chin atop his knees, squeezing his eyes shut. "I ... don't think that quite applies anymore."
What the hell is that supposed to mean? He would have killed you a thousand different ways before your body hit the ground!
"Don't you remember what they said? The two worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla exist on shifted dimensions." A stubborn pause. "And the date. AM 4016. We've gone back in time by two years." He stared at Aster, gritting his teeth together. Two years from now ... he would ... he would ...
Hmph. Could be part of some elaborate scheme to make us think that.
"But how do you explain Aster, then?"
Easy. That bastard destroyed the Ginnungagap and merged the world with Niflheim to bring him back to life!
"I can't agree with you. Besides ..."
Besides?
"How are you even here? I had Verius--"
Ha ha ha ha ha. For all your professing of being "kind," deep down you're just like me. You would have killed me, just like you killed--
"Shut up! Verius is the Summon Spirit of Heart. There's no reason his power should have faded, unless we have traveled backward in time!"
Or maybe they killed Verius, too--
"Stop it!"
A deep mental sigh.
I'm sorry. You're naive to this world--I was only considering the worst case scenario. But maybe we have gone back in time. I ... can't reach our Centurions.
Vividly Emil remembered what had transpired in the basement laboratory, calling out to Tenebrae and even Aqua, but receiving no response. Before, when Tenebrae had regressed to his core state to save Emil from death, there was a great void he felt in his very being. All because his Centurion was gone.
But, the Centurions ... were dormant now, weren't they. Dormant Centurions returned to Ratatosk, and if Ratatosk were dormant, they returned to their altars, the seals where the Summon Spirits used to be imprisoned. But if that were so ...
"Why haven't the Centurions ... returned to us?"
... If we have gone back in time, then Ratatosk exists here, too. If the worlds indeed are split, Ratatosk must be dormant. Ergo, the Centurions are dormant within their altars.
"But wait a minute. We had most of the cores--"
Even after you had Verius seal me, you didn't trust me with the cores. Marta was holding them.
"Oh. I'm sorry."
Don't apologize. He scoffed. Your concern was valid.
Yet that left more questions than answers. Most likely they had traveled back in time by two years, before the world was reunited, before the new World Tree had germinated. That meant there were now two Summon Spirits with name and power of Ratatosk, lord of all beasts, administrator of the world's mana, and guardian to the Ginnungagap.
Emil clenched his fists, biting his lip.
"Do we ... still have our own powers?"
That, I don't know. Our powers result in our bonds with our Centurions, and their bonds with monsters. Since in the future their bonds have not been severed, we should retain our powers--in theory.
The incident in the basement laboratory flashed before Emil's eyes. When he and Richter had been fighting in the basement, he had stolen Richter's sword ... and then ...
"You still had Ain Soph Aur. Doesn't that mean we still have our powers?"
I guess. We should start making pacts with monsters again soon. That way we'll grow stronger.
Inwardly Emil agreed. But already he missed the monsters he'd spent so much time and effort in raising and caring for: the Fenrir Sial, which raised from a common wolf, the tiny Chimera Tierra, Eridanus the Orca, and many more besides.
"But can we make pacts without Tenebrae?"
Yes. I know the pact magic. Just leave it to me.
Leave it to him. Emil knew his other self was waiting patiently for his reply. The same self who had earlier this very same day proclaimed mankind as despicable parasites. The reason he had Verius seal his violent side in the first place. And yet ...
That same self had given everything to protect Marta, one such "despicable parasite." The self who'd cried and mourned for Marta when they thought Richter had killed her. Emil might not have been entirely sure, but he knew this at least: his other self had loved Marta.
"... Okay. I'll trust you."
With that, he lay down on the his bed, closed his eyes, and fell asleep. Across the room, in the other bed, Aster stirred, his green eyes open.
Awake.
--
Kate hadn't been lying when she said Richter couldn't ever leave the lab in the basement without permission. To an extent, anyway. In the dead of night, Richter had left the lab through a secret passageway hidden in the wall behind a cabinet. Later, he returned, arms full of manila folders and binders.
Kate tilted her head to one side in question.
"Are those--?"
Richter nodded, depositing his burden on the table in the middle of the lab. He opened one of the folders, the papers inside containing photographs of the expelled Drs. Balfour and Mordio.
"Their reports on their discoveries based on their research. Dr. Balfour based his theory on the thesis that he could create perfect replicas of things and people by duplicating their mana signatures. However, the process was difficult and the mana would dissipate before its form was finalized.
"So Dr. Balfour enlisted Dr. Mordio's assistance to make fomicry work: to use blastia cores--spheres of densely concentrated mana to power blastia, a type of magitechnology--to hold the mana together long enough to finalize its form."
Kate looked over Richter's shoulder, at the files he held, but he was flipping through the papers too quickly for her to catch more than a few words. Those papers seemed to be written reports of experiments to successfully create a living replica by this method of using blastia cores as the base material.
Many of the experiments had failed.
Richter clicked his tongue impatiently.
"Hn. None of these reports state exactly whose genetic data and mana signatures they were trying to replicate."
"Maybe they were using plants, animals, or monsters." Kate suggested.
Richter replied, "No, it had to have been people--if it weren't, there'd be no need to keep it secret like this."
It went unsaid, but their discovery earlier that day--Emil, a human, built of mana with a genome identical to Aster's--supported this notion. Certainly Emil was capable of using magic, and powerful enough to destroy laboratories, if not entire buildings. Blastia were weapons used in the Kharlan War four thousand years ago. Powered by blastia cores, these weapons of magitechnology were capable of destroying entire cities.
The kind of sheer raw power Emil had displayed certainly was worthy of a blastia core.
There did exist humans who had elves in their family trees and therefore could use magic. But their magic was usually weak, and not even elves or half-elves could use such destructive magic as Emil had been about to unleash, before Aster had jumped in and stopped it.
All of this supported Richter's belief that Emil might be a product of Dr. Balfour and Dr. Mordio's fomicry theory revived. If so, there had to have been some reason for it--with Emil's power, living weapons for use in war wasn't an unbelievable thing.
Richter frowned. A human weapon ... come from the declining world of Sylvarant. Could it be possible ...
"Kate. What if Emil was a human weapon created to fight for the Desians in the declining world of Sylvarant?"
--
Aster had never watched himself wake up before. He was an avid researcher, so he was used to waking up at the crack of dawn, perhaps even earlier. Emil, meanwhile, was still deeply asleep.
Aster stood over his reflection, once again overwhelmed at the unreal, surreal experience. As far as he could tell, he and Emil were identical in every single physical aspect. Well, except in one regard--Emil seemed to be physically stronger, since he was a swordsman. He and Richter had appeared ready to fight to the death. Aster, meanwhile, wouldn't have lasted more than three seconds against either one of them.
His confidence as a man was now officially crushed.
Emil stirred, slowly waking up.
And Aster stared into his own eyes.
"Maybe you scholar types are different," Emil began slowly, drowsily, "but I find it kinda strange that you were watching me sleep." His sheepish expression made Aster laugh.
"When was the last time you had an identical twin?"
A small flush came to Emil's face. He sat upright, looking Aster in the eye. True, he never had watched himself do anything before.
"Actually," Aster said, folding his arms, "there was something I wanted to ask you."
Emil quirked a brow, tilting his head to the side quizzically. "What is it?"
"Well," Aster turned, ambling around the room. Obviously he was reluctant to ask whatever it was he wanted to ask. "You're a swordsman, right?"
Emil nodded. "Yeah." It still felt weird not to have his broadsword belted to his back. It was probably still locked up in the basement laboratory, with the rest of his belongings. Aster continued.
"Richter's always telling me to learn to fight to protect myself whenever I travel. So--"
"You want to learn to use a sword?" Emil asked. Aster shook his head.
"Not a sword. This." He lifted his right hand, on which he wore the dual spinner. WIth a flick of his thumb, he unlocked the rotating blades. "It's lightweight and doesn't require much force. Speed and agility is best for this weapon, and I'm quick on my feet."
Emil's eyes went wide, he sucked in breath between his teeth. He furrowed his brow. "That's--Marta's--"
Aster quirked an eyebrow. "What?"
Emil sighed. "N-nothing. But yeah, you want to use that, but how can I help? I use a sword."
"Just spar with me." Aster said. "I'll talk with Richter to get your stuff back."
"But what about your research?" Emil protested. He already had a guilty conscience being around both Richer and Aster two years removed from his own time. Taking Aster's time from research was the last thing he wanted to do--he blinked. Or was it?
Aster's research into the relationship between mana and monsters was what led him to Summon Spirit Ratatosk two years from now--Ratatosk, and his death. If Emil could keep Aster away from Ratatosk's domain beyond the Otherworldly Gate, then Aster would continue to live. And Richter would never attempt to summon Niflheim, the demonic realm.
Aster's voice broke his train of thought.
"Think of this as research into Sylvaranti fighting styles, then." The Sybak scholar grinned, holding the spinner. "Since I am looking after you while you're here, anyway."
Emil smiled ear to ear. As long as he could keep Aster away from the Ginnungagap, away from Ratatosk ...
Then the world would be saved.
--
The two half-elves, so absorbed in their examination of fomicry files and reports, forgot themselves completely. When the heavy door began to open, there was a small panic. They scrambled to gather all the loose papers and photos scattered all over the lab, stuffing them back in their proper folders.
They were hurriedly cramming envelopes and binders in a chest of drawers when the door finally opened.
"Hey, Richter." Aster said sunnily, waving as he walked in. Richter sighed, a hand to his forehead, as if he suffered a headache. Beside him, Kate gave a small sigh of relief.
"What brings you here first thing in the morning?" Richter asked. He made a mental note to brew some coffee later--the strong, bitter, dark coffee from the highest caliber Gaoracchia bean.
Without hesitation or reservation, Aster walked right up to Richter and intertwined his arm with the redhead's.
"What," he half-pouted, "I can't come to see my most favorite wittle half-elf in the entire world?"
"First off," Richter said, rolling his eyes, "I'm taller than you. Secondly," he pried Aster off his arm, "you only bother me when you want something from me. What is it?"
"Your gourmet Gaoracchia coffee."
"Yes, we all know that."
Aster clasped Richter's hands in his, looking deeply into the older half-elf's eyes. Kate could have sworn she saw the sparkling lights between them.
"Richter," Aster said softly, intertwining his fingers in Richter's, "would you ..." he paused, probably for dramatic effect, "return Emil's things to him?"
A deathly silence.
"Ha. Ha." Sarcasm was thick in Richter's voice. He took his head away from Aster's, going to the counter in the back of the lab to being making the gourmet Gaoracchia coffee.
"Please?" Aster insisted, pulling on his best friend's coat. "Pretty please, with sugar on top?"
The coffee pot was over the burner, the coffee was ground and placed in the filter. Water began to drip as it was heated, the liquid taking the flavor of the grounds with it into the pot.
"Have you forgotten? Emil tried to kill me yesterday!"
"He didn't mean it. He apologized to you and everything!"
"Why would I want to give him his weapon back? So he can attack me again?"
The smell of brewing coffee filled the lab.
"Aww," Aster's voice reached the unnaturally high pitch of a high school girl coddling a cute kitten or puppy. "Does wittle Richter need someone to protect him from big, bad Emil?"
Behind the two young men, Kate had to practically stuff her fist in her mouth to stifle her giggling. Richter was a man of dignity. Aster was a man who liked to whittle that dignity down to nothing in order to bend the redhead to his will. The coffee was only one of the many things of Richter's that had fallen victim to Aster's clutches. There was that book, those playing cards, that model of the Grand Tethe'alla Bridge ...
Richter silently fumed. He pinched the bridge of his nose, breathing deeply, silently asking the Goddess Martel to grant him even a sliver of her divine patience.
"Aster, I wouldn't say such things to someone who knew the spell Tidal Wave, if I were you."
"Well, booooo!" Aster stuck his tongue out his mouth playfully. "That wouldn't do you any good, would it? Not only me, but you and Kate would drown, too!"
Richter sighed as he set out three coffee mugs beside the small jar of sugar. "Seriously, why do you want me to return Emil's things to him?"
"Well," Aster put his hands on his hips, "you're always telling to pick up fighting so I can protect myself whenever I travel. And I decided to stick with the spinner, but I have no one to spar with. I'd spar with you, but ... yeah. So if you give Emil his things back, I can spar with him and get stronger."
"Hmm. Not a bad idea." Richter said, pouring coffee into each mug. "Now, if only we can be sure Emil won't lash out at me again ..."
Aster clapped his hands together. "He's out there, you're in here. And in the event I have to go somewhere he can't, he gets locked up in my dorm."
Richter turned to stare in astonishment at Aster. " ... You actually--he's locked in there right now?"
Aster nodded. "Yup. Director's orders. I'm to look after him, and if I can't watch him, we have to keep him secure somehow."
Richter cleared his throat, mixing sugar and milk into the coffee. He handed Aster and Kate their mugs, taking a small sip of his own, savoring the bold flavor. That coffee always hit the spot, and he'd always needed some of it after dealing with Aster. The blond never ceased to astound him.
"You are a dangerous man." Richter said, and Aster chortled.
"So, then, you'll--?"
"No."
"Oh come on!"
"Use a training dummy or something."
"I'll let you go on a date with me."
Richter choked, spewing coffee out of his mouth. Wiping his lips with the back of his hand, he sputtered, "Wh-what?" He could see that Aster was dead serious.
"Let me return Emil's things to him, and I'll go on a date with you."
"Don't be absurd--"
"A set time, day, and place of a social gathering for any purpose," Aster said flatly, "is the definition of a date." He scoffed, smirking. "I wouldn't pounce you spontaneously."
Richter covered his face with a hand. "It's hard to argue with you. Though I don't know about that last part ..."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing!" Richter said vehemently. He put his coffee mug down, withdrawing from his coat a ring of keys. "I'll let you give the kid his stuff back. Just stop saying such creepy things!"
Aster was all smiles as Richter unlocked the locker where Emil's possessions lay. Gathering them up in his arms, he regarded Richter with a feral glint in his eye.
"Thanks, Richter. Though, you know ... I'm just playing with you. You need to loosen up."
"Get good with that spinner." Richter said flatly. "I want to see how that would chalk up to my style."
Aster had as small half-pout. "Anywho, I'm holding that date to you!"
"Whatever!"
Chuckling to himself, Aster left the lab, closing the heavy door behind him with his foot (because he was so hardcore like that).
Richter sighed, massaging his temple. "How can we go out? I can't leave here."
Kate giggled. "Like that's stopped you." She indicated the drawer where they had hidden all of the fomicry files he had taken from the archives in the library. Richter scoffed.
"Well, maybe going out just this once won't be so bad."
